SANS NewsBites is a semiweekly high-level executive summary of the most important news articles that have been published on computer security during the last week. Each news item is very briefly summarized and includes a reference on the web for detailed information, if possible.

Spend five minutes per week to keep up with the high-level perspective of all the latest security news. New issues are delivered free every Tuesday and Friday.

INTERNET STORM CENTER TECH CORNER

Dont Miss: What Works in Threat Prevention: Detecting and Stopping Attacks more Accurately and Quickly with ThreatSTOP. Thursday, May 26th, 2016 at 1:00 PM (13:00:00 EDT/US Eastern) with John Pescatore and Ken Compres. http://www.sans.org/info/186005

2) A New Perspective on Patch Management. Tuesday, May 24th, 2016 at 1:00 PM (13:00:00 EDT/US Eastern) with Marcelo Pereira and John Pescatore. http://www.sans.org/info/186015

3) What types of CYBER THREATS are driving the IT community to take action?? Tell us in SANS Survey. http://www.sans.org/info/186025**************************************************************************

Noodles & Company has hired an outside company to investigate reports that payment cards used at some of its stores were compromised. Sources at several financial institutions informed Brian Krebs of a pattern of fraudulent activity on cards that had been used at Noodles restaurants. The possibly compromised cards were used at Noodles locations starting in January 2016. -http://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/05/noodles-company-probes-breach-claims/#more-34851

A forthcoming messaging system from Google, called Allo, will offer end-to-end encryption. Google will not be able to access the content of communications sent with Allo. The encryption will not be switched on by default; users will have to deliberately choose "incognito" mode. Google is also releasing a new video calling app called Duo will also offer end-to-end encryption as its default state. -http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/280422-new-google-messaging-app-to-offer-optional-end-to-end-encryption-https://www.wired.com/2016/05/allo-duo-google-finally-encrypts-conversations-end-end/[Editor's Note (Murray): Device to device encryption (by default) resists widespread surveillance while only marginally increasing the cost of intelligence collection. However, most messaging is destination device agnostic, where device-to-device encryption does not work. In life and death applications device to device encryption is not a substitute for device agnostic, person to person, or app to app encryption. Unlike Apple's iMessage, Allo "incognito mode" is an option, not on by default, because it would interfere with Google's business model. It is not yet clear how sticky and broad the setting will be. (Williams): With every week bringing a new story about end to end encryption, it's a good time to remind readers that end to end encryption means nothing if attackers control the communication endpoints. Expect sophisticated attackers to move to the endpoints as their eavesdropping capabilities dry up due to end-to-end encryption. Aggressive endpoint monitoring is a key to success here. (Honan): Having encryption off by default is an unwelcome move from Google as many users may assume its turned on by default and hence think they can communicate securely. It also means that users will have to configure the service which in turn could lead to users misconfiguring the service and making it insecure. Services such as these should have their security settings turned on by default. ]

Prestel Hacking Story Archive Given to UK's National Museum of Computing (May 18, 2016)

Trial for British Airways DDoS Suspect (May 17, 2016)

The trial has begun for Paul Dixon, who is accused of launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against British Airways, the Durham Police, Police Scotland, and video game retailer CeX in October 2014. Dixon has been charged with five counts of unauthorized acts to impair the operation of or access to a computer. -http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hacker-cost-british-airways-100000-7993002

Cybersecurity Certification for Teachers (May 10, 2016)

The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) is developing a cybersecurity certification program for secondary school teachers. The majority of educators teaching computer science courses do not have computer science degrees. The program covers a variety of topics, including authentication, encryption, penetration testing, and security architecture. -http://www.techrepublic.com/article/cs-teachers-ramping-up-cybersecurity-education/[Editor's Note (Williams): Programs like this are critical to properly prepare the future cybersecurity workforce. Even at the university level, far too many teachers don't understand basic computer security - and it shows in their lesson plans. Topics like input sanitization are often missing from programming courses and fundamental understanding of encryption is often non-existent. ]

John Pescatore was Vice President at Gartner Inc. for fourteen years. He became a director of the SANS Institute in 2013. He has worked in computer and network security since 1978 including time at the NSA and the U.S. Secret Service.

Shawn Henry is president of CrowdStrike Services. He retired as FBI Executive Assistant Director responsible for all criminal and cyber programs and investigations worldwide, as well as international operations and the FBI's critical incident response.

Suzanne Vautrinot was Commander of the 24th Air Force (AF Cyber) and now sits on the board of directors of Wells Fargo and several other major organizations.

Ed Skoudis is co-founder of CounterHack, the nation's top producer of cyber ranges, simulations, and competitive challenges, now used from high schools to the Air Force. He is also author and lead instructor of the SANS Hacker Exploits and Incident Handling course, and Penetration Testing course.

Michael Assante was Vice President and Chief Security Officer at NERC, led a key control systems group at Idaho National Labs, and was American Electric Power's CSO. He now leads the global cyber skills development program at SANS for power, oil & gas and other critical infrastructure industries.

Mark Weatherford is Chief Cybersecurity Strategist at vArmour and the former Deputy Under Secretary of Cybersecurity at the US Department of Homeland Security.

Stephen Northcutt teaches advanced courses in cyber security management; he founded the GIAC certification and was the founding President of STI, the premier skills-based cyber security graduate school, www.sans.edu.

Dr. Johannes Ullrich is Chief Technology Officer of the Internet Storm Center and Dean of the Faculty of the graduate school at the SANS Technology Institute.

William Hugh Murray is an executive consultant and trainer in Information Assurance and Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Sean McBride is Director of Analysis and co-founder of Critical Intelligence, and, while at Idaho National Laboratory, he initiated the situational awareness effort that became the ICS-CERT.

Rob Lee is the SANS Institute's top forensics instructor and director of the digital forensics and incident response research and education program at SANS (computer-forensics.sans.org).

Tom Liston is member of the Cyber Network Defense team at UAE-based Dark Matter. He is a Handler for the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center and co-author of the book Counter Hack Reloaded.

Jake Williams is a SANS course author and the founder of Rendition Infosec, with experience securing DoD, healthcare, and ICS environments.

Dr. Eric Cole is an instructor, author and fellow with The SANS Institute. He has written five books, including Insider Threat and he is a founder with Secure Anchor Consulting.

Mason Brown is one of a very small number of people in the information security field who have held a top management position in a Fortune 50 company (Alcoa). He leads SANS' efforts to raise the bar in cybersecurity education around the world.

David Hoelzer is the director of research & principal examiner for Enclave Forensics and a senior fellow with the SANS Technology Institute.

Gal Shpantzer is a trusted advisor to CSOs of large corporations, technology startups, Ivy League universities and non-profits specializing in critical infrastructure protection. Gal created the Security Outliers project in 2009, focusing on the role of culture in risk management outcomes and contributes to the Infosec Burnout project.

Eric Cornelius is Director of Critical Infrastructure and ICS at Cylance, and earlier served as deputy director and chief technical analyst for the Control Systems Security Program at the US Department of Homeland Security.

Alan Paller is director of research at the SANS Institute.

Brian Honan is an independent security consultant based in Dublin, Ireland.

David Turley is SANS operations manager and serves as production manager and final editor on SANS NewsBites.

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